Rented Movies Lately?
 

I am a Netflix DVD whore. I just wanted to have a little thread to let us know what you've been watching on home video. Feel free to discuss films peeps post on in greater detail.

Ratings:
* - hated it!
** - didn't like it
*** - liked it
**** - really liked it
***** - loved it!

here's some recent films I've seen:

Choking Man
****

The Fall
**

Outsourced
****

Snow Angels
***

Penelope
****

Son of Rambow
****

Children of Heaven
*****

The Color of Paradise
*****

El Bola
*****

Just recently rented:

Kingdom of Heaven....not groundbreaking, but entertaining

Last of the Mohicans...Renee had never seen. It's such a beautiful movie.

Short Circuit....Johnny 5 is alive! hahaha

The Last Samurai....ok, I dislike Tom Cruise, but this movie is great.

The Prodigy...without a doubt, one of the WORST movies ever made.

Sex & The City...Renee cried. Twice. I never liked the show, but the movie was ok.

I rented recently:

The Incredible Universe -- NOVA -- String Theory
A poor popular documentary on the advent of string theory among physicists, filled with a lot of tawdry graphics that clarify very little, & a lot of physicist sound bits that clarify even less. The narrator, Brian Greene, annoys within minutes.

Les Enfants Terribles
Melville's best film, in my opinion -- but maybe that's my idolatry of Cocteau showing.

Did you see 'The Dreamers' by Bernardo Bertolucci, which is a homage to Les Enfants Terribles?
Holy Terrors
Holy Innocents

I just joined NetFlix. We'll see how that works out. . .

As for Iranian films, if you enjoy them, I really recommend the movies of Mohsen Makhmalbaf. His best film is A Moment of Innocence -- one of the key films of the 90s. Lovers of music should also check out his movie The Silence. Anyway, I was totally obsessed with his stuff when I was in college back in the 20th Century, but he's held up compared with Abbas Kiorastami who just does nothing for me now.

I've been a member for a few years now, you'll love it.

I enjoy good films, regardless of the country of origin. Meaning, I don't seek out films based on a country.

Thanks for the recommendation! I have indeed seen 'A Moment of Innocence' and it was interesting, but a bit meandering. I have not seen 'The Silence' as I have heard such terrible things about it, so I keep hesitating. I will give it a go though and report back.

Majid Majidi is an amazing storyteller with so much heart. I just added 'Baran' to my Netflix queue.

Since you're a NewYorker and loved 'A Moment of Innocence', have you seen 'Choking Man' yet? I think you may like it.

It looks to me more an autobiographic homage to his youth and all the cinema that he loved, from Jules et Jim to Shock Corridor, from Blonde Venus to Bande à part. The lens he used though is too soft to leave much more than an exercise of style. Anyway, it was way better than Besieged.

Romy

One of the great "international" films I've ever seen was "Jinnah" about the leader of Pakistan. Christopher Lee was Oscar worthy.

I'm pretty sure Bertolucci said in his commentary on the DVD that it was indeed a homage to Les Enfants Terribles, but my memory is fuzzy as to his exact words. I'll have to listen again.



Recent Viewings:

Dan in Real Life
****

Miss Firecracker
***

The Bridges Of Madison County *****

Spriderwick Cronicles *****

Mimzy ***

Stardust *****

Those are the ones i can think of off hand , I watch more kid movies having a child .When i am alone , I'll watch an old romance move or a new one . ;)

I love this movie even though DeNiro was a complete miscast.

Ratings:
* - hated it!
** - didn't like it
*** - liked it
**** - really liked it
***** - loved it!

***** - Jimmy Carter: Man from Plains

***** - The Big Lebowski

**1/2 - Resident Evil (though I very much admire the director, Paul W.S. Anderson, and even LOVED his most recent movie Death Race)

The Visitor - (I enjoyed McCarthy's second film very much. I still prefer The Station Agent more.)
****

Mrs. Brown
***

No Reservations - (ugh, what crap. chick flick for sure, but I just wanted to see Zeta-Jones)
**

The Happening...disappointing at the end. Shamaylan (sp?) needs to give up his one trick pony.

Tortoise VS. Hare...Umm, well, visually entertaining; like Finding Nemo or Toy Story...but boring!

Clue...haha...I'd seen it years before. My favorite line is still when Michael McKean says "Mrs Peacock was a MAN?!" and then gets slapped. hahaha. Amazing.

Life As A House....i liked the idea of it, the followthru was just a bit of a letdown. Lots of stuff going on in the movie that in the end seemed pointless. Lots of unresolved buildup as well...but I guess thats how life really is isnt it?

I saw this in the theater and really liked it - and I don't generally care for action/adventure movies. Temple of Doom is still my least favorite out of that series.

I've just now started back watching my Netflix movies - I kept the same three for close to a year. :eek:

I just got 3 new ones today:

La Notte (1962 - sounds like an Italian "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" but we'll see)
Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955 - starring Jennifer Jones & William Holden - in Technicolor :D )
Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003 - artsy Scarlett Johansson thing)

Ones I recently watched:

Sunset Boulevard ***** (Excellent) - this one never gets old for me.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes **** (Really Good)

Pat and Mike *** (Good) - cute Katharine Hepburn & Spencer Tracy thing - not the greatest movie ever made, but it was cute.

Captain from Castile **** (Really Good) - Technicolor epic starring Tyrone Power - I got it because I wanted to see Cesar Romero in something besides Batman.

Cleopatra **** (Really Good) - the Claudette Colbert version from 1934. CC is great in this, and they told the story in under two hours, unlike the Taylor/Burton version.

Song of Bernadette **** (Really Good) - I really loved this movie, but I totally understand why Jennifer Jones played tramps in her next three films.

The Private Lives of Elizabeth & Essex *** (Good) - Bette Davis looks so great in this, but the ending drove me nuts; they had me right up until the last 15 minutes or so - I hated the way they had her beg him to not march off to be executed. It's definitely a product of its time, but I'm knocking off an asterisk for it (and for Erroll Flynn, who was like the Ricky Martin of Old Hollywood).

88 minutes with Al Pacino was great....five stars!Made Of Honor with Patrick Dempsey (eye candy and one of those fairy tale love things that I go ga-ga for)....five stars!

I saw this awhile ago. Not bad, but not great either. It was missing some heart and soul, although it was sure nice to look at.

Report back on your findings.

I've never heard it described ... quite that way.

Did you recognize the triumphal march from this? (Two degrees to Fleetwood Mac)

My Rentals

Kenneth Clark's CIVILISATION (1969) is a major achievement in both historical & aesthetic terms. The scope is huge, of course, but the enormousness doesn't bog down; polyhistors like Clark & Jacques Barzun (& perhaps Dr. Jacob Bloody Bronowski) uncover remarkable connections between epochs & draw analogies with an easy precision. The result is completely engaging. Clark's text -- read by the author -- is dense but plainspoken: I recommend watching the program with the subtitles displayed.

I believe Wil, Romy, Anita, Tiff, & perhaps CADreaming would love this program.

Grade: A


KINDERGARTEN COP is Ivan Reitman's extraordinarily warm & humane film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Penelope Ann Miller, Linda Hunt, & Richard Tyson. Schwarz plays his character (cop undercover as teacher) with intelligence, taste, & emotional power. The children are a winning bunch -- each one a ultifaceted youth with desires, hopes, dreams, & disappointments. The childlike charm of the story navigates the perilous waters between the Scylla of sentimentality & the Charybdis of buffoonery with grace & conviction & near-perfect skill.

Grade: A

i really liked 88 minutes alot~ but i love pacino~

La Vie En Rose ****

I enjoyed this film very much. Marion Cotillard was simply superb. That scene where Edith is moving around her flat looking for her boyfriend (who had died) was so moving.

I agree her performance is absolutely stunning, even if the melò pushed to the extremes, gave to the movie a claustrophobic atmosphere, at times.

Romy

I've never seen this, but I saw the earlier "Edith et Marcel," & found it all rather soppy & pointless.

Yes, it definitely was soppy & pointless (as at least half of Lelouch movies ). La vie en rose has flaws too, especially in the direction by Olivier Dahan, who's talented but in this movie tries to go as safe as he can (who can blame him, the task was intimidating). Marion Cotillard though gives to the movie a way richer spectrum. Even only the scene where she suffers and collapses on the stage, when Piaf was near the end, gives to the movie a quite engaging emotional power (Very Bette Davis, David ;)) .

Romy

Hey, I finally watched this. My first impression was that I really liked it - and I wasn't sure I would. What really struck me was how Scarlett Johansson has hardly any lines at all and yet she manages to convey everything so beautifully. I can kinda see what you mean about missing heart and soul - it's not a very "warm" movie. I'd give it four out of five stars.

I also enjoyed La Notte, though I might only rate that 3 out of 5. I appreciated the ambience very much, but it's probably not something I'd sit through again. It's vaguely similar to Virginia Woolf in that both films are about dysfunctional marriages, but that's about where the similarities end. The scene where Giovanni and Lidia are in the nightclub watching the dancers, with the lady balancing the glass of wine on her heard while she contorts herself, is probably one of my favorite scenes in a movie, ever. :D

Let's see I have watched a lot of movies lately
The Strangers - 4 stars - I liked the fact that it was more suspense and less gore. My hubby and I watched it Halloween night and we were very creeped out.
Hulk - 4 stars - I think Edward Norton is such a great actor, he really made this movie.
IronMan- 4 stars - I love Robert Downey Jr as an actor and this movie was excellent.
Reign Over Me - 4 stars - it was kinda strange to see Adam Sandler be serious in a movie but overall the movie was good and it even had some funny parts too!
Sex and the City - 5 stars - I loved loved loved this movie! I laughed and cried throughout the entire movie.
88 Minutes - 3 1/2 stars only because the movie got kinda strange at the end. If it wasnt for Al Pacino this movie would have only got 2 stars.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall - 4 stars - loved the crude humor. good stuff.
Juno - 5 stars - excellent movie and it should have won an oscar.
Get Smart - 3 stars - overall the movie was ok but I thought it would have been funnier.

I have The Happening, The Other Boleyn Girl and Hitman at home now.

Just saw...GET SMART. it was good...but not as good as I thought. 7 out of 10.

KUNG FU PANDA...I had seen it before but was stoned. 8.5 out of 10. Great movie.

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS...pfft...whew. Bad. 5 or 6 out of 10. I kept waiting for it to end. Christopher Lee and Samuel Jackson doing Count Dooku and Mace Windy were the only props.

THE INCREDIBLES (still a great movie!)...8.5 outta 10. Why haven't they made a sequel~?!

I rent Falling Down every 2-3 months---guess i should just buy it.
Though it probably wasn't meant to be a comedy, it makes me laugh no matter how sad i feel. love the whammy burger scene!

Rarely rent movies, but I did purchase "Hellboy 2" last Tuesday since Debbie & I had planned to purchase it - and I know she'd loved it.